We lost Ronald Reagan's first wife (actress Jane Wyman, 93), the true father of "Rosemary's Baby" (novelist Ira Levin, 78) and the mascara industry's best friend (televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker Messner, 65).

Lily Munster (Yvonne De Carlo, 84), Miss Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell, 80) and the fabulous Trudy Kockenlocker from Preston Sturges' masterpiece "Miracle on Morgan's Creek" (Betty Hutton, 86) left the stage.

But for every celebrity death that earned a lot of attention in 2007, dozens more were almost unnoticed or underreported.

To balance the scales somewhat, we now present our 11th annual Pop Culture Necrology, a salute to some of the notable but less-celebrated figures who departed our vale of tears during the past year.

As always, our key resource was local author Harris M. Lentz III, whose definitive "Obituaries in the Performing Arts" series is published annually by McFarland & Co. of North Carolina. (Visit mcfarlandpub.com.)

Lentz's books typically run to more than 400 pages each, and an early draft of the 2007 edition lists hundreds of names. So the roll call below represents just a few of those worth remembering.

Let's begin:

Japanese-American cartoon artist Iwao Takamoto died Jan. 8 at the age of 81. Takamoto designed such Hanna-Barbera characters as Penelope Pitstop, the Jetsons' dog, Astro, and Scooby-Doo -- a crime-solving canine whose popularity has fueled a Scooby industry that has continued unabated for 39 years (or about 273 years, in dog years).

Many professional wrestlers slipped from life's headlock this past year, including: 400-pound Bam Bam Bigelow (born Scott Charles Bigelow, died Jan. 20 at 45), noted for the tattoo of flames crowning his bald head; pioneering glamour grappler The Fabulous Moolah (Lillian Ellison -- Nov. 2, 84), originally known as Slave Girl Moolah when she served as valet to such wrestlers as the Elephant Boy before becoming a star in the ring -- and briefly dating country singer Hank Williams -- in the 1950s; pro football player-turned-squared circle champ Ernie "The Cat" Ladd (March 10, 68), remembered for his feuds with Andre the Giant and the Junkyard Dog; and John Kronus (George Caiazzo -- July 18, 38, death attributed to an enlarged heart), who was one half of the tag team The Eliminators.

Oscar-winning Best Actress Kathy Bates and best-selling author Alan Lightman were among the students taught by award-winning local theater director Gene Crain, a longtime drama teacher and later assistant principal at White Station High School. He died Jan. 21 at 79.

Glamorous actress and Motown recording artist Barbara McNair, 72, who was MRS. Tibbs opposite Sidney Poitier in "They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!" (1969) and a hip nun opposite Elvis in "Change of Habit" (1969), died Feb. 4. McNair's career was damaged in 1972 when she was arrested for heroin possession. In 1976 her allegedly Mafia-affiliated husband was killed in an apparent mob hit.

"Mule train, yah!" Exuberant vocalist Frankie Laine, whose hits included "That Lucky Old Sun" and "Mule Train," died Feb. 6 at 93. Discovered as a big band vocalist by Hoagy Carmichael, Laine -- a Chicago-born Italian -- eventually became known for slickly orchestrated evocations of the Old West, singing the theme songs for such TV shows and movies as "Rawhide," "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral," "3:10 to Yuma" and, finally, "Blazing Saddles."

An Olympic athlete and former Tarzan who -- unlike many other Hollywood Ape Men -- became a respected actor in roles that required him to wear a shirt and long pants, Bruce Bennett died Feb. 24 at the age of 100. Born Herman Brix, the 1928 Silver Medalist in the shot put was chosen by Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burroughs to star in "The New Adventures of Tarzan" (1935); Brix later changed his name and won important supporting roles in such classics as "Mildred Pierce" and "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre." Another Tarzan, Gordon Scott, 79, who starred in five critically respected jungle adventures from 1957 to 1960 and appeared as such musclemen as Goliath, Samson and Hercules, died April 30; and fellow bodybuilder Reg Park, an Arnold Schwarzenegger mentor and three-time Mr. Universe who played Hercules, Maciste and Ursus in Italian sword-and-sandal epics of the 1960s, died Nov. 22 at 79. Fantasy fans also said bon voyage to Kerwin Mathews (July 4, 81), star of such special-effects adventures as "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad" (1958), "The 3 Worlds of Gulliver" (1960) and "Jack the Giant Killer" (1962).

Australian rocker Billy Thorpe, 60, who created a Classic Rock radio staple in 1979 when he released his album Children of the Sun, died Feb. 28. Other newcomers to rock-and-roll heaven included Quiet Riot lead singer Kevin Dubrow (Nov. 25, 52), who scored a massive hit in 1983 with the Slade cover "Cum On Feel the Noize" from the album Metal Health; and Mark St. John (April 5, 51, cerebral tumor), who briefly followed Ace Frehley replacement Vinnie Vincent as the lead guitarist in KISS, playing on the 1984 album Animalize during the band's no-makeup era.

Flower, the beloved matriarch of the Whiskers Clan on "Meerkat Manor," a popular Animal Planet network reality series, was killed by a cobra while defending her family in the Kalahari Desert on March 6. The death was documented in the series episode "A Journey's End," broadcast Sept. 28. Other non-human notables who went to that big pet cemetery in the sky included Alex (Sept. 6, 31), the world's most famous African Grey parrot, who learned more than 100 English words during 30 years of experiments into avian intelligence at Harvard and Brandeis universities; and Jiminy Jo (July 12, 41/2 ), an albino rat who won the lead role in the 2005 indie horror spoof, "Ratula."

Sometimes it seems you can't turn on WKNO-TV without seeing flamboyant John Inman fluttering around as the campy department store clerk Mr. Humphries in reruns of the British sitcom "Are You Being Served?," which originally aired from 1972 to 1985. Inman, 71, died March 8.

Vilma Ebsen, partner in a popular 1930s dance duo with her brother, future Beverly Hillbilly Buddy Ebsen, died March 12 at 96. The team of Vilma and Buddy Ebsen was showcased in such Broadway revues as "Stars of the Future" and in such films as "Broadway Melody of 1936" until Buddy decided to stick with movies while Vilma returned to the New York stage.

Arnold Drake, 83, co-creator in the 1960s of some of the most bizarre characters in the DC Comics universe, including The Doom Patrol and Deadman, died March 12. Drake wrote and directed the early gore cult classic "The Flesh Eaters" (1964) and wrote DC's Adventures of Jerry Lewis comic book series. Other comic book pros who passed away included Paul Norris (Nov. 6, 93), co-creator of Aquaman (who debuted in More Fun Comics in 1941); artist Marshall Rogers (March 25, 57), remembered for his stylized 1970s work on such characters as Batman and Mister Miracle; Joe Edwards (Feb. 9, 85), an Archie Comics artist from the 1940s until the 1980s who created the mischievous Li'l Jinx in a 1947 issue of Pep Comics; and Bob Oksner (Feb. 18, 90), known for drawing crime-fighting bombshells (Supergirl, the Black Canary) and comics based on TV personalities (Bob Hope, Sgt. Bilko). Oksner also wrote the newspaper comic strip "Dondi," about a big-eyed orphan boy, from 1967 to 1986.

Director Bob Clark, 67, responsible for two of the most famous movies of the 1980s, the perennial holiday favorite "A Christmas Story" and the teen-sex romp "Porky's," was killed April 4 in a head-on car crash. He also directed "Porky's II: The Next Day," the influential slasher film "Black Christmas" and the cult horror thrillers "Deathdream" and "Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things."

Distinguished character actor Roscoe Lee Browne, whose dignified bearing and cultured baritone made him a fixture on stage, screen and television from the 1950s until his death, died April 11 at 81. A college track star, French and contemporary literature professor and New York Shakespeare Festival regular, Browne guested on such sitcoms as "Sanford and Son" and "All in the Family," and appeared in such movies as "The Liberation of L.B. Jones" and "The Cowboys" with John Wayne.

Stop hating on Ewoks for a moment and show some love for Britain's Ronnie Phillips (April 28, 95) a graduate of the Fred Roper Midget Troop who portrayed one of the fuzzy denizens of the forest moon of Endor in "Star Wars: Episode VI -- Return of the Jedi" (1983).

Tommy Newsom, the sax player whose conservative appearance and supposedly dull life was the source of much ribbing from host Johnny Carson when Newsom -- jokingly dubbed "Mr. Excitement" -- substituted for the flamboyant Doc Severinsen as the bandleader on "The Tonight Show," died April 28 at 78. Also gone: saxman Boots Randolph (July 3, 80), whose 1963 smash instrumental hit "Yakety Sax" became the theme music for "The Benny Hill Show."

Cartoonist Howie Schneider, whose scratchily drawn comic strip about mismatched mice, "Eek & Meek," was syndicated at its height of popularity in 500 newspapers (including the old Memphis Press-Scimitar), died June 28 at 78. The strip debuted in 1965 and ran until 2000, when Meek finally married his girlfriend, Monique.

Southern rock took a couple of hits when guitarist and Marshall Tucker Band founding member George McCorkle, 60, who wrote the group's 1975 song "Fire on the Mountain," died June 29 and when Hughie Thomasson, 55, a guitarist and founding member of the Outlaws who supplied the vocals on such hits as "There Goes Another Love Song" and "Green Grass and High Tides" died Sept. 9 of a heart attack.

African-American cartoonist Robert "Buck" Brown, a Morrison, Tenn., native who created the painterly "naughty granny" cartoons that ran for the past 40 years in Playboy magazine, died July 2 at 71.

Baritone singer and tinwhistle-player Tommy Makem, who teamed with the Clancy Brothers in the 1950s to become the world's most popular performers of Irish folk songs of drinking, romancing, rebellion, worship and "blackguarding," died Aug. 1 at 74.

Idiosyncratic Okie pop auteur Lee Hazlewood, who achieved chart success dueting with Nancy Sinatra (he also wrote her smash hit, "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'") and cult appreciation for such eccentric 1960s concept albums as "Lee Hazlewood-ism: Its Cause and Cure," died Aug. 4 at 78.

James Brown associate Bobby Byrd, who met Brown while they were serving time in a juvenile facility in the 1950s and whose family sponsored the future superstar's parole from prison, died Sept. 12 at 73. As a right-hand man to Soul Brother Number One, Byrd sang in Brown's backup group, the Famous Flames, and recorded numerous solo songs in the 1970s that provided funky samples for future hip-hoppers, including "I Know You Got Soul," "Hot Pants -- I'm Coming, Coming, I'm Coming" and "Hang-Ups We Don't Need (The Hungry We Got To Feed)."

"Match Game" panelists Brett Somers, 83, and Charles Nelson Reilly, 76, died Sept. 15 and May 25, respectively. The widow of actor Jack Klugman, Somers specialized in "wisecracking broad" roles on Broadway and television before she became famous as a game-show celebrity. Reilly's career was more distinguished. With his oversized glasses, trademark ascot and fey manner, he was a fixture on TV in the 1960s and '70s, appearing weekly on such programs as "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" and the Saturday morning kids' show "Lidsville." But he also was a noted stage actor and director: He earned a Tony Award in 1962 for his supporting performance in the original Broadway production of "How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying"; a Tony nomination for his role in "Hello, Dolly!" with Carol Channing; and a Tony nomination for Best Director for "The Gin Game" with Julie Harris. Kitty Carlisle, 96, who died April 17 (46 years after her husband, playwright Moss Hart), also achieved her greatest fame as a game show celebrity, despite an acting career that included the female lead in "A Night at the Opera" (1935) with the Marx Brothers.

Tony-winning actress Alice Ghostley, 81, best known as the nervous witch Esmeralda on episodes of "Bewitched" from 1966 to 1972 and as dizzy neighbor Bernice Clifton on "Designing Women" from 1986 to 1993, died Sept. 21.

Karl Hardman, 80, the annoying bald guy in the 1968 classic "Night of the Living Dead," whose seemingly cowardly insistence that everybody hide in the basement is vindicated only after most of the cast has been eaten alive by zombies, died Sept. 22.

Auteur screenwriter Charles B. Griffith, 77, who brought a satirical sense of humor to his inimitable scripts for such Roger Corman drive-in classics as "A Bucket of Blood," "The Little Shop of Horrors," "The Wild Angels" and "Death Race 2000" and who directed "Eat My Dust" (1977) with Ron Howard, died Sept. 28. Griffith's most famous line was "Feeed me!," uttered by Audrey Jr., the bloodthirsty plant in "Little Shop." The final page also turned for A.I. Bezzerides (Jan. 1, 98), known for scripting such film noir classics as "Kiss Me Deadly," "On Dangerous Ground" and "They Live by Night" (adapted from his own novel, "Long Haul").

Child actor Sonny Bupp, who played Charles Foster Kane III, the son of Orson Welles and Ruth Warwick in the 1941 masterpiece "Citizen Kane," died Nov. 1 at 79.

Clandestine Charmin-squeezer Mr. Whipple -- otherwise known as actor Dick Wilson -- died Nov. 19 at 91. Wilson's run as Whipple began in 1965 and continued until 1989, at which time Procter & Gamble awarded him a lifetime supply of toilet paper.

Virtuoso jazz pianist Oscar Peterson, died two days before Christmas at the age of 82. Dubbed the "Maharajah of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, Peterson was ranked with Art Tatum as "one of the greatest piano players of all time" by Allmusic.com. Other jazz giants who heard Gabriel's horn included bop-influenced alto sax player Frank Morgan (Dec. 14, 73), whose heroin addiction caused a 30-year delay between his first (released in 1955) and second albums; revolutionary drummer Max Roach (Aug. 15, 83); and saxophonist Cecil Payne (Nov. 27, 84), whose solos enlivened such 1940s Ellington recordings as "Stay on It" and "Ow!"

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